Verbal Ability Set 2:

Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

Directions: The following sentences contain a blank space provided for a missing word that will
complete their meaning. Choose the word that best fits the meaning of each sentence.

1. His neighbors found his ______ manner bossy and irritating, and they stopped inviting him to
backyard barbeques.
A. insentient
B. magisterial
C. reparatory
D. restorative
E. modest

2. The dress Ariel wore ______ with small, glassy beads, creating a shimmering effect.
A. titillated
B. reiterated
C. scintillated
D. enthralled
E. striated

3. Levina unknowingly ______ the thief by holding open the elevator doors and ensuring his
escape.
A. coerced
B. proclaimed
C. abetted
D. sanctioned

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 Verbal Ability Set 2:
Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

E. solicited

4. I had the ______ experience of sitting next to an over-talkative passenger on my flight home
from Brussels.
A. satisfactory
B. commendable
C. galling
D. acceptable
E. acute

5. The ______ weather patterns of the tropical island meant tourists had to carry both umbrellas
and sunglasses.
A. impertinent
B. supplicant
C. preeminent
D. illustrative
E. kaleidoscopic

6. To find out what her husband bought for her birthday, Susan attempted to ______ his family
members about his recent shopping excursions.
A. prescribe
B. probe
C. alienate

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 Verbal Ability Set 2:
Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

D. converge
E. revere

7. Such a ______ violation of school policy should be punished by nothing less than expulsion.
A. copious
B. flagrant
C. raucous
D. nominal
E. morose

8. The ______ rumors did a great deal of damage even though they turned out to be false.
A. bemused
B. prosaic
C. apocryphal
D. ebullient
E. tantamount

9. I have always admired Seymour’s ______; I’ve never seen him rattled by anything.
A. aplomb
B. confluence
C. propriety
D. compunction

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 Verbal Ability Set 2:
Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

E. nostalgia

10. The ______ seventh-grader towered over the other players on his basketball team.
A. gangling
B. studious
C. mimetic
D. abject
E. reserved

11. The police officer ______ the crowd to step back from the fire so that no one would get hurt.
A. undulated
B. enjoined
C. stagnated
D. permeated
E. delineated

12. Keith was ______ in his giving to friends and charities throughout the year, not just during
the holidays.
A. munificent
B. portly
C. amphibious
D. guileful

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 Verbal Ability Set 2:
Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

E. forensic

13. The high-profile company CEO was given an ______ for speaking at the monthly meeting of
the area business leaders’ society.
A. expiation
B. honorarium
C. inoculation
D. interpretation
E. inquisition

14. Because he was so ______, the athlete was able to complete the obstacle course in record
time.
A. belligerent
B. nimble
C. demure
D. volatile
E. speculative

15. With sunscreen and a good book, April ______ by the pool in her lounge chair while the
children swam.
A. ensconced
B. sustained
C. expelled

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 Verbal Ability Set 2:
Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

D. transcended
E. lolled

16. Dogs growl and show their teeth in an attempt to ______ the animal or person they perceive
as a threat.
A. bolster
B. waylay
C. cow
D. exacerbate
E. appease

17. Oliver was unable to ______ himself from the difficulties he had caused by forging the
documents.
A. reprove
B. pique
C. oust
D. extricate
E. broach

18. The graph clearly showed the company reaching the ______ in profits during the 1980s
when the economy was in a boom period.
A. narthex
B. gullet

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 Verbal Ability Set 2:
Practice Questions Contextual Meaning

C. gamut
D. quiescence
E. vertex

19. In the famous balcony scene, Romeo ______ Juliet’s beauty in one of the most romantic
soliloquies ever written.
A. sanctions
B. extols
C. peruses
D. beguiles
E. fetters

20. It is every person’s ______ to live the life he or she chooses.

A. composite
B. eloquence
C. prerogative
D. allusion
E. demise

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